Got an iPhone? You probably pay over $100 on your monthly bill

But it probably balances out high carrier subsidies on new iPhones.

When it comes to monthly bills for various smartphone platforms, iPhone users are paying the most, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. In a recent analysis shared with AllThingsD, 59 percent of iPhone users are paying more than $100 per month for calls, texts, and data.

The majority of those users, 49 percent, are paying between $101-200, and 10 percent are paying more than $200. A little over a third of iPhone users pay between $51-100, and a relative handful—6 percent—pay between $25-50. Those users getting off relatively cheap are likely on prepaid plans with the likes of Virgin Mobile or Cricket.

Contrast this with Android users; 53 percent pay over $100, while 14 percent pay under $50. Slightly less than a third pay between $51-100.

But even while iPhone users tend to pay more than Android users in monthly fees, carriers are probably making about the same or slightly more money from Android users overall thanks to the differences in device subsidies, which run about $450 for an iPhone.

"Given the subsidies on iPhones, the carriers are working hard to make their money back during the course of the contract," CIRP's Josh Levitz told AllThingsD. "With the exception of perhaps the hottest Android phones, we think the subsidies on Android phones are lower, so the carriers make more money even with slightly lower per-subscriber revenue."

I'm still grandfathered in to my original account (back when I got my 3g) and my employer at the time had an AT&T discount: my bill works out to about $55/month after all taxes, fees, usage, etc. I don't work for that employer any more, but I forgot to tell AT&T that

I still think that's overpaying, and wish we could all get what @RMarsden is getting in the UK!

Honestly why is this 'news'? Especially on carriers with subsidies, it's built-in with the contract you sign when you 'buy' the phone.

For me, I am on a family plan, with an old company 20% discount, with 4 lines (3 currently used), all Galaxy S3s, and monthly (barring late fees) is ~$210/month.....Then again, I am not on my own plan, but I have limited access to the account, anyway. Still, VZW calls me because my number is the single oldest still on the account ¬_¬

We're paying $19/mo for Republic Wireless. Unthrottled, uncapped, unlimited voice text and data. We've been using them since September, and while the phone is running Gingerbread, it is about as indestructible as they get.

I gotta say, I was right about to cancel my AT&T account, buy an unlocked phone and go monthly with a provider like StraightTalk until my company started picking up my cell phone bill. I still would; the cost ends up about the same but you end up with an unlocked phone when you travel so you can buy cheap local SIMs.

I'm on a Verizon share everything plan. Me and my step-mom have smartphones and my dad has a dumbphone. We share 4 gigs of data (they barely use any). We each pay $65 a month, but this includes a 15% discount because my step-mom works at a partnet bank.

Does no one in the US buy unlocked phones? The subsidised phone plans are just a loan with a nice margin for the phone companies...

Not usually, no. I don't remember if they still do, but the non-CDMA carriers didn't want you to buy a phone unlocked elsewhere and use it on their network/plans. I think you could, in theory, just do that now, but very few people are that adamant about buying full-price, unlocked from the factory phones.

I, personally, unlocked, and rooted my S3 the day I got it. Though, in my case, VZW locked the bootloader, unlike other carriers, so that's what my 'unlock' really means. Not sure if I can switch to a GSM-based carrier with my phone....I'm sure the radio supports it.

Does no one in the US buy unlocked phones? The subsidised phone plans are just a loan with a nice margin for the phone companies...

You can't not pay the subsidy and get a full coverage plan. The no-subsidy pay as you go plans don't include roaming agreements. And the regular plans don't have a "pay for your phone and you get $x off" deal.

The problem is that the cost of the plan for an unlocked phone is the same as a for a phone on a two-year contract.

crhilton wrote:

You can't not pay the subsidy and get a full coverage plan. The no-subsidy pay as you go plans don't include roaming agreements. And the regular plans don't have a "pay for your phone and you get $x off" deal.

T-Mobile allows you to bring your phone (or pay full price upfront) and not pay a monthly subsidy. T-Mobile is now wooing iPhone users and is extremely price competitive for paid off phones (see my post above).

I switched to a family shared data plan recently, and now I only pay $60/mo, to contribute to the family plan. I figure 4 iPhones and one dumb phone for $250/mo (plus taxes/fees). I'll have to kick in another $10/mo if my next iPad has LTE built-in (which I will probably do, because tethering my iPhone 5 cuts battery life).

I have 2 unlocked iPhone with unlimited everything and only pay $85 a month for both. They are on the old WFM plan and at least here (philly) 3g is already working on WFM (tmobile) so I can't complain.

My total bill on AT&T for 2 iPhones with unlimited data, the base minute plan, and unlimited text, with discounts included (my wife's a teacher), comes to barely over $120, taxes included. That's unlimited mobile to mobile, unlimited data, unlimited text, unlimited calling to any AT&T line (land lines included since we're on Unity by having AT&T Internet as well), and we have a microcell we pay $0/month for making all calls from home to anyone free 24x7 (and AT&T's microcell lets us block others from using it unlike Sprint and AT&T, so no 3rd parties are using our internet for their calls unless we explicitly enter their phone's ionfo in the microcell). Worst month we've had in 3 years we used 300 billable minutes out of the 450 we're granted, as we have over 4K rollover minutes in holding (the max). We use on average 2500-3K minutes a month. Some months, I'm using less than 100 billable minutes. We have LTE here that's pushed as much as 61mbps, and we rarely if ever drop calls (less than 20 calls in more than 2 years last count). This is not some legacy plan (other than unlimited data), anyone can get this plan (and with a bit of muscling customer care, you CAN get unlimited data on new AT&T plans, just threaten to take that brand new phone back to the store unless they offer it to you...) If I lived in NY, LA or some other frequency starved area, no way I'd be on AT&T, but in the southeast, AT&T has the best coverage, fastest LTE, fastest 3G when not on LTE, and lowest prices (for a more than 1 phone plan). The idea you need unlimited minutes to make 3-4K minutes of calls a month is a perpetuated myth, since they give you that FREE by adding a text plan, anyone paying for more than the base minute plan is either nuts, or lives somewhere AT&T has no landlines and calls a lot of them.

Does no one in the US buy unlocked phones? The subsidised phone plans are just a loan with a nice margin for the phone companies...

Doesn't benefit anyone in the US at all unless they buy an AT&T phone and would be OK with T-Mo 2G. Because of ripple effects still lingering from an old FCC licencing model (pre-national plans, when all telcos were regional), carriers have few to no cross-compatible frequencies, and worse, most use incompatible protocols. Having an unlocked phone in the US is of no value unless you travel heavily internationally.

Does no one in the US buy unlocked phones? The subsidised phone plans are just a loan with a nice margin for the phone companies...

Doesn't benefit anyone in the US at all unless they buy an AT&T phone and would be OK with T-Mo 2G. Because of ripple effects still lingering from an old FCC licencing model (pre-national plans, when all telcos were regional), carriers have few to no cross-compatible frequencies, and worse, most use incompatible protocols. Having an unlocked phone in the US is of no value unless you travel heavily internationally.

Unless of course, you're using the sane providers who use GSM over CDMA. Then you can be smart and buy an Android smart phone that has dual-SIM slots (of which there are more than a few models available, just not directly from the telcos).

Does no one in the US buy unlocked phones? The subsidised phone plans are just a loan with a nice margin for the phone companies...

Doesn't benefit anyone in the US at all unless they buy an AT&T phone and would be OK with T-Mo 2G. Because of ripple effects still lingering from an old FCC licencing model (pre-national plans, when all telcos were regional), carriers have few to no cross-compatible frequencies, and worse, most use incompatible protocols. Having an unlocked phone in the US is of no value unless you travel heavily internationally.

Bullshit. Tmobile has refarmed most of their network to use the same frequencies as AT&T. Phones like the unlocked nexus 4 support pentaband and cover all frequencies used by tmo and AT&T

Honestly why is this 'news'? Especially on carriers with subsidies, it's built-in with the contract you sign when you 'buy' the phone.

For me, I am on a family plan, with an old company 20% discount, with 4 lines (3 currently used), all Galaxy S3s, and monthly (barring late fees) is ~$210/month.....Then again, I am not on my own plan, but I have limited access to the account, anyway. Still, VZW calls me because my number is the single oldest still on the account ¬_¬

Are you sure this is a good deal? Do you have unlimited data or something?